REAL-WORLD BTS NEWS ITEM

[Gallahan]

Heya folks, it's been a while, but I'm back for a bit. I thought you might want to hear about this *real world* story that is eerily BTS in nature. Yeah, sure it might make for cool adventure backdrop, but man is it a little eerie when these strange things are really going on in the world!!!

1) RED RAIN OVER INDIA: a sonic boom is heard over an Indian province; shortly afterwards, rain falls from the sky... STAINING EVERYTHING RED. It's a RED RAIN. The Red Rain contains cells that are red in color for some unknown reason, and a scientist notices peoples' white shirts getting stained. He takes samples directly from the falling rain. He looks at the Red Rain under a microscope and discovers cells that resemble red blood cells... but without DNA. Yes, withOUT DNA. In other words: unlike any lifeform on Earth, which requires DNA to replicate. He conducts experiments with pressure and temperature on the cells, which reproduce at higher temperatures. They form white cells... without DNA. Very strange. One theory is that an icy comet exploded in the upper atmosphere and introduced this "alien" lifeform to Earth. Where could this lead?

Want details? Visit www.earthfiles.com and the story is there, along with a new, strange, mysterious disease that grows blue and red fibers from underneath human skin. I know, it sounds like I'm making this up... Just do the research on your own and see what you get. Another site to visit and look in the "recent news item section" is www.coasttocoastam.com, and do some digging, and you'll get all sorts of stories.

What do you think of RED RAIN? What do you think of the fiber disease? How might you use these in BTS? How might these kinds of things alter your *safe* view of the world? Let us know; we want to hear your opinions.

[Ridley]

I heard about this a while back. That is freaky.

I wonder if its the first phase of an alien invasion.....

[Shawn Merrow]

Wikipedia also has a page on this.

[runebeo]

Cool story it should have happen in 1700s there be some witchs burning that month.

[Gallahan]

Therumancer, GREAT points!! ---Also, there is a NEGA-PSYCHIC in every group. A flying saucer can land, and it's great when it's explained away as swamp gas, Venus and mass hysteria.

While you made many valid points, they are true in the broadest of terms. This event (the sonic boom, the red rain) have been scientifically verified at university level. The scientific community is indeed separated from the street magician.

Further, the fiber disease is not isolated to India. People around our country are being stricken with it, enough so that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has gotten involved. It's not mass delusion when fibers are being extracted from beneath your skin and their existence has been medically verified.

Sure, it's important to be on guard for mass delusion/hysteria, as well as being wary for street hucksters and snake-oil salesmen. These events, though, are not in that category. These events have been verified and that's the horror of it...

...It's *real world* mystery, real world horror. However, I can see the validity of Therumancer's points too, for RPG purposes. Imagine having an NPC with that outlook; it will add a lot of dramatic tension to the game and a sense of adversarial fun.

[glitterboy2098]

He looks at the Red Rain under a microscope and discovers cells that resemble red blood cells... but without DNA. Yes, withOUT DNA.

most Red Blood cells lack a nucleous and mitchondria. in otherwords, they lack DNA. (only birds and reptiles are different, they have a nucleous, it's just inactive)

likewise, many simple single celled orginisms also lack nucleous and mitochondria, their DNA loosly spread throught their cytoplasm. such orginisms appear to lack DNA when normal staining techniques are used, since the color isn't bright enough to be seen.

[Gallahan]

I suppose I might have failed to point out that the importance of those cells not having DNA is that...

...THEY REPRODUCE.

Yes, they reproduce in test tubes. Without DNA. I'm not a scientist by any means, but if I'm correct, all life on Earth requires DNA for cell replication.

That is the main point about the lack of DNA. Sure, there are cells that don't have DNA, but (correct me if I'm wrong) they CANNOT reproduce/replicate themselves without it.

[Gallahan]

Good point about viruses. And actually, viruses are still a big mystery for science. They're almost... alien.

Yet the cells from the red rain do not contain DNA. The mystery is that they are somehow able to reproduce.

I think the whole situation is extraordinary: sonic booms over India, followed by a red rain. The scientist who had presence of mind enough to take out beakers and collect samples might have stumbled upon something going on throughout countless ages: the seeding of our planet by comets/meteorites from *out there.*

And just how far out there? Who's to say how far the mysterious object traveled to get here, or how long it spent in the vastness of space... circling in an unknown orbit/path... to finally arrive here.

Imagine an intelligent form of life that was dying, or on the verge of cataclysmic disaster, and they/it wanted to ensure a Legacy. Imagine one solution to their impending disaster would be to create large chunks of ice which contained microbes from their world. They sent these most precious pearls off into the grand unknown, with longshot hopes that one day... countless years away... that their microbes would take root upon another world and begin the slow journey of evolving and growing... into likenesses of themselves.

Science teaches us that life must come from life, that it doesn't "spontaneously generate" on its own. However, if that is the case, then where did it begin here on Earth? The theory that amino acid "soup" struck by lightning suddenly forming into Life contradicts what they teach us, that life doesn't begin via spontaneous generation.

Many people believe that the cells of the red rain are indeed extraterrestrial in origin because they are so mysterious in nature and tend to replicate faster when exposed to extremes in pressure and heat.

[Gallahan]

Good point.

Y'know, if one thinks about it... The tiny-tiny-tiny set of variables required for human existence is really, really... -well- TINY.

The human race exists in an extremely stable atmosphere that provides a small range of temperature. The Earth protects us from horrific radiation from the sun, even at our great distance from it. We have plenty of water, which is NOT found anywhere else that we know of. There are SO MANY coincidences about our very existence.

For instance, has anyone considered how RARE it is that the moon is PRECISELY the SAME IDENTICAL size in the sky as the sun? Yes, the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but it is so close to us that it is exactly the same size as the sun (in appearance) in our sky. Scientist say that the chances of that happening are astronomical.

There might be more going on in our reality than meets the eye... Hey, who really, really knows?

[sHaka]

Here's one that got me thinking:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/gla ... 798314.stm

[tmikesecrist3]

Actually viruses can reproduce without DNA. They only have RNA.

da Nerdbane

not a all viruses are rna viruses, thows or just the ones that can be the most dangeris becouse the mutate very quickly... thats why we can catch colds and flus every year and sometimes more than once a year... it is that abliaty to mutate that cam make them so dageris.. that and ppl dont think any thing about getting the flu despint what we hear in the news most ppl wont take a flu pandimic serecely intell thay see some one die form it....

dna viruses, do not mutate as much... dna is harder to change, unless your mixing dna, as is the case in sexural reperduction.. but those tend to be the thangs we can vacanate agest. (thow I know there are flu vacsens but with all the new strans coming out (that pesky rna) is why we need a shot every year) like small pox, poleo, and thangs that most ppl can only catch once

[Gallahan]

Red rain is reported to be falling in FARGO, North Dakota... home to the Red River....

[Lord Z]

I think that Charles Fort wrote extensively about colored rains. He basically pioneered the high weirdness genre, and he had a particularly strong interest in strange meteorology.

[Gallahan]

Don't take anything that happens in India too seriously. One thing that you have to remember is that while the Hindus are better than the Muslims overall, India is still a country held together largely by a theocracy....
...People used to get all freaked out by swamis showing off levitation, cutting people in half, and other stuff. Now you can see all the same tricks in a Vegas magic show. That has jaded me to news (no matter how convincing it might seem at the moment) coming from India. They are probably the best tricksters/hoaxsters/illusionists in the world, religious trappings aside... and I mean this in a respectful way believe it or not.
>>>----Therumancer--->

It is important to be skeptical. It's important not to be easily fooled, so I agree. However, these are facts. Samples were collected over a period of time, as it rained red several times. The cells in the sample are a scientific fact, and the fact that they actually replicate at high temperatures (temps that would kill "normal" cells) is a proven fact. So, while all the stage magic and the like might be hoaxes and such, this was an actual, verified event. Sure, there are hoaxes in India and all countries, and there's a "sucker born every day" as P.T. Barnum said, but the red rain event(s) really did happen.

Someone else mentioned it should have happened in the 1700s? THAT would be a great BTS adventure set in ANOTHER TIME PERIOD! Take that idea one step further... Have the red rain occur in a fantasy setting, or Middle Age Europe. In fact, all of human history might have been plagued with the red rain over time... Which might account for fallen ancient civilizations and tons of lost knowledge. This opens it up for ANYTHING.

Maybe the rain, if ingested, mutates the host into twisted monstrosities. Maybe a piece of a CRIMSON METEORITE crashes nearby, and controls anything and everything that has ingested it's cells... and those people/creatures become zombie-like puppets controlled by an intangible entity associated with the meteorite shard.

Hmmmm...

[Lord Z]

Quick question -- has anyone been following this story? I mean the construction of the new city of Astana, Kazakhstan. I'll post links if I can ever get a chance to use a full computer again soon.

Edit: ...and slime screen captures too. This is getting really weird. Has anyone here ever heard of ectoplasm showing up on a satellite photo?

[Natasha]

Wha

[Natasha]

Ectoplasm? No, but other stuff.
http://googlesightseeing.com/2006/09/18 ... alien-bug/

[Gallahan]

Quick question -- has anyone been following this story? I mean the construction of the new city of Astana, Kazakhstan. I'll post links if I can ever get a chance to use a full computer again soon.

Edit: ...and slime screen captures too. This is getting really weird. Has anyone here ever heard of ectoplasm showing up on a satellite photo?

--No, hadn't heard of anything in Astana, Kazakhstan. Sounds very interesting. What are the basics? I suppose I'll have to look it up and see what's going on.

Comment about the "Edit" comment. --No, hadn't heard of ectoplasm showing up on a satellite photo. BUT... I have read about anti-gravity effects having an effect on metal, basically the "jellyfication" of metals. Jellified metal, to me, might be mistaken for ectoplasm, especially if it were caused by anti-gravity effects (floating, jellified metal might seem a bit weird, like what we think of as ectoplasm).

But, might be completely off the mark as to what it might really be.

[Lord Z]

So Googles does manually scan satellite photographs. I thought these were probably digitized photos from the time they were taken until they landed in Google's servers. This explains a lot. Thank you, Natasha. I will fully explain soon.

[Natasha]

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&l ... 48117&z=17

Strangest shrubbery I've ever seen.

Now since this is BtS you have to wonder: 1) where the original image is and 2) what kind of supernatural R&D is going on there?

[Gallahan]

Imagine a private estate, perhaps a castle, and the owners want complete privacy, and they paid google to keep it that way. OR... it's a government research facility, and google was told to keep it private... or else.

The world really has a wealthy elite. It is these people, these families, who make up the 1% to 2% of the population that own 98% of the world's wealth. We're talking SUPER rich beyond wildest imaginings. And because of this extreme wealth, they are not subject to the media spotlight ---these people own the companies that own the companies that own CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News, and all print media such as national newspapers and major websites/portals. Literally most mainstream media, if not all, is owned and therefore influenced by people of this wealthy elite. That would, I imagine, grant some influence with google. Or, they are wealthy enough to purchase this kind of privacy, in the form of that terrain being blacked-out/camouflaged.

With this in mind, how do you occupy your time as a wealthy elitist? "Normal" hobbies and pasttimes are ridiculous when you can spend 100 million dollars on a whim. Why, you might get into collecting things that might be considered priceless, such as rare antiquities. Those kinds of items are beyond money, for you have to discover them (which requires major funding of archaeological digs), buy them (either legally or illegally, expensive either way) or... STEAL THEM. Stealing them means hiring top-notch thieves who won't talk or hiring your own 'special forces' kind of assault team to take them from museums (sort of like what is said to have happened at the Iraqi Museum of Antiquities during the first days of the invasion in 2003, for real).

Well, where would you store these precious artifacts you painstakenly paid to have delivered? In a private gallery. --Masked from the prying eyes of google and the world. What would you be doing with these artifacts? That's you and your family's and your secret society's secret(s). But now, thanks to being masked on google, you can do it with the knowledge that someone else, anyone else, can't use that service to plan their assault on your secret estate, thus ending your plans for opening up ancient dimensional doorways... --or whatever your megalomanical mind has in store for us.

[Lord Z]

That's not far off of non-fiction, G. There are plenty of places like military bases and even Disney World which are censored on Google Earth.

I really do want to explain myself. I am not just being a tease. Stuff keeps coming up.

[Lord Z]

So, here is my tale of high weirdness. While working, I was listening to Episode #14 of The Paranormal Report. The YouTube ap on my Android phone cuts out shortly before reaching the end of the show -- probably just runs out of memory. Just before the software fails, the hosts try to squeeze in one more story, one which catches my interest. I follow the show links to see what all the fuss is about.

This crazy conspiracy theorist website (love em) has this wonderful thread about the city of Astana. It is a brand new city which is being built in central Asia. It is designed with masonic symbols to be the headquarters of the New World Order, the Freemasons, and sun worshippers -- because you know, they are all the same guys. The thread is full of great photography too, and I am very surpised that I have never heard of this place.

I investigate a little deeper. I also use Google Maps satillite mode to look for myself. It turns out, no. The new city was founded almost two hundred years ago. Oil sales are bankrolling a few new buildings and probably renovations, not the illuminati. The British architech who created the city actually only picked up where a Japanese architech left it by dying. Japan isn't a hotbed of freemasonry. I am not recognizing any sacred geometry in the layout of the city either.

Then things get weird again. I find a spot on the northen side of town where there seems to be a large white global, the size of a house, flowing cross a neighborhood. It looks like tear, but Google uses only digital photos, right? (Wrong, Lord Z) Then I find another. Here is a good example. Use Google Earth or Google maps in saellite mode to look up Leninakanskaya Street, Astana, Kazakstan. Now scroll to the eastern end where the road ends and meets Gogal Street. Just to the northwest is a large building with a blue dome and red roofs. Immediately north of that dome is a huge warehouse with white ectoplasm flowing off the roof. Now look a touch to the southeast at the next red roof. Yes, that is another building turning transparent.

It turns out that Google does use photos which are scanned manually. The ectoplasmic globs are probably just what they look to be -- torn spots on photographic paper. The disappearing buildings are probably the result of some technician moving the photos while scanning.

Oh well, it is a pretty city with parks all over the place. It has a huge glass pyramid (the city's opera house), a tower inspired by a mythical Simurg (a bird from my copy of Bygone Beastiary by White Wolf), the world's largest tent (under construction), and several hundred new automated air defense missile batteries (according to a military news website). Ultimately, the idea of a city in the 'Stans, custom built for an illuminati and harnessing sacred geometry is just too good to not use.

[Gallahan]

Yeah, Z, I agree... The more people look into real-world stories, the more they might discover that there's A LOT out there that seems awfully strange. These stories of "high strangeness" do offer up great material for BTS ideas. They also might perk some curiosity in people, making them wonder whether or not the real world is as mundane as they were led to believe. Take, for example, the solar system.

For years and years, the solar system might have been considered fantastic, but all of the planets and moons seemed rather "blah." Here lately, they are finding all sorts of neat things out that suggest that we don't know as much as we thought, and that perhaps, others were here before us. Several examples are:

1. Saturn's moon, Iapetus. It's not round. It's round-ish, but it is faceted, like a jewel, ---like a twelve-sided die. Further, there are three raised, parallel ridges going around its equator, sort of like the opposite of the death star trench. Official NASA photographs from the latest probe in the area (Cassini) stunned everyone back in 2006-ish. But, has this made main stream media? No. Find out more here: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/luna/ ... etus02.htm --Keep in mind that this is only part 2 of a 7 part report; click on all reports to get the hard science behind it all; Iapetus stunningly looks like the Death Star.

2. Hexagonal cloud structure on Saturn's north pole: clouds swirling above Saturn's north pole... in a 6-sided hexagon pattern?! What? Find out more here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-034

3. A "head" found on the moon, in an official NASA photo? Look: http://projectcamelot.org/lang/en/richa ... _2_en.html

A SIDE NOTE: One of my BTS players wanted to play an FBI forensics investigator. She was an Air Force SP (Security Policeman --Police-person in her case). As any good GM will know, you sort of have to get to know the field that any of your characters are going to be involved in. So, sure, I'd seen tv shows about detective work and crime scene investigations, but wanted to get to know it in-depth, to be able to challenge her role. So, I checked-out several books from the library on the FBI and forensic investigation. Wow. If you research things before you run elements of them in your games, you'll learn a LOT about the world and make it a richer, more enjoyable game, and the players might appreciate that you did your homework. My point is that the reason I've listed some of these "real world" links and info, is that by researching these topics, you might be inspired to create a storyline, adventure or campaign. BTS sourcebooks are neat, but as we all know, they're pretty non-existent. So, get out there I say, and explore your world, learn about its quirks and fringes. Get inspiration from real world items. Branch out and do your own investigation into these things.

[Lord Z]

That first photograph of Iapetus is ammmaaaazinnnng. It makes me want to run an exploration-themed BtS & Robotech crossover.

[Natasha]

Mimas also looks like the death star.

[Lord Z]

Never trust a company that uses the second Death Star as its emblem...
LINK!

[Gallahan]

--Isn't it pretty WILD how STRIKINGLY similar to the Death Star Iapetus looks? That line: "That's no moon, it's a space station," sorta rings a big REALITY BELL when NASA discovers such a thing as a moon of Saturn. There's the big circle and the trench. Makes a person wonder just what George Lucas might have "known," or perhaps tapped into that deeply intuitive human collective consciousness that Joseph Campbell wrote about in his book, "THE POWER OF MYTH." BTW, highly recommended to be in any creative person's library. I bought it and read it and used it as a reference for the Hero's Journey (and other things) before I learned, years later, that Lucas was inspired by Joseph Campbell and even consulted him for his writing for Star Wars.

And, if you liked the stuff about Iapetus and "Data's Head" on the moon, just google "Mars" and "Phobos" and "Anomaly" or "Monument." Or, click on these links:
1. BUZZ ALDRIN, Astronaut, 2nd man on the moon speaks about Phobos' monument: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Sbaerwyho
2. --Be sure to click on the NEXT IMAGE so you can see the much better 2nd image: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/spac ... -life.html

And, there's so much more, too. There's plenty of real world strangeness out there for anyone to use as a BTS meets RIFTs or Robotech or whatever genre. There's no reason spookiness and mystery shouldn't be a part of futuristic settings, because we are, after all, a futuristic setting compared to 1910, a century ago.

[Lord Z]

That ectoplasmic glob developing in Astana can be seen here: Link!

Or a screen capture can be seen there: Linkadink!

The photographs of various sites about town came from this website: Linkaroo!

[Natasha]

Er, the glare?

[Lord Z]

That is as good of an explanation as any that I have, Nat.

[Natasha]

That is as good of an explanation as any that I have, Nat.

I've seen it in other places, too. Makes me wish that I had saved those locations.

[Gallahan]

Very curious; makes me wonder about all the classic journalism questions:
WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY.

Does anyone know how, even, to contact Google to mask your private residence? It's a fair question, and anyone and everyone should be able to have their residence masked for privacy. I mean, what if you don't want your neighbors to know that you have a pool, or an enclosed junkyard, or are building a private nuclear reactor. Sheesh.

[Sir Neil]

At AT I heard a tale that screams to be made into a BTS adventure.

The government was building a hydroelectric dam, so it tried buying up all the land that was going to be flooded under the new lake. Well not everyone wanted to sell, so they got evicted.

*What if they eluded eviction and died in the flood? Ghosts living in underwater houses would be a real challenge for scuba diving investigators.
*What evidence could be buried at the bottom of the lake? A serial killer who buries bodies in the basement would love to have it drowned under a hundred feet of water.

[mrloucifer]

I like where your head is on this one Sir Neil! Flexes some the skill muscles the PC's dont get to use a lot like SCUBA, Pilot Boat, Find Contraband and the like.

[mrloucifer]

In fact, taking this one in another direction; what if the dam burst and created a flash flood situation while the characters were investigating? As in the residents refuse to leave and the PC's get suspicious and investigate BEFORE the lake is filled?

[mrloucifer]

I like where your head is on this one Sir Neil! Flexes some the skill muscles the PC's dont get to use a lot like SCUBA, Pilot Boat, Find Contraband and the like.

In fact, taking this one in another direction; what if the dam burst and created a flash flood situation while the characters were investigating? As in the residents refuse to leave and the PC's get suspicious and investigate BEFORE the lake is filled?

Goign a step further, have the flood take place while the PC's are investigating, and THEN have them return in the boat w/ scuba gear, etc to continue.

[Lord Z]

Good one, S.N.!

So what is happening at the lake which gets the investigators' attention in the first place?